Exposure to Traffic & Lung Development

W. James Gauderman, Ph.D., Rob McConnell, MD, Frank Gilliland, MD, Ph.D., Duncan Thomas, Ph.D., Edward Avol, MS, Nino Kuenzli, MD, Ph.D., Michael Jerrett, Ph.D., and John Peters, MD, SC.D.
University of Southern California
P01ES011627 and P30ES007048

University of Southern California researchers with support from NIEHS report that children living within 500 meters of a freeway in California have reduced lung-function than children living 1,500 meters or more from freeways. This finding is important because it shows that within certain communities, some children are at higher risk than others of adverse respiratory effects resulting from environmental pollution. It also reinforces that environmental justice is a community issue.

The study included 3,677 children aged 10-18 from twelve Southern California communities that represent a wide-range in regional air quality. Yearly lung-function tests including forced expiratory volume and maximum midexpiratory flow rate were done for eight years. They found significant deficits in lung function for children living with 500 meters of the freeway when they reached 18 years-old. The deficits were about 3 percent for forced expiratory volume and about 6.5 percent for maximum midexpiratory flow rate.

The research team points to diesel exhaust as an important component of the impaired lung function. Diesel exhaust is known to contain a high fraction of particulate matter of a size that is readily inhaled deep into the respiratory system. Other human exposure studies show that breathing dilute diesel exhaust causes extensive inflammatory effects in the bronchial walls with adverse effects associated with oxidative stress, activation of protein kinases and transcription factors, and perturbations in cell function by the chemical and physical properties of diesel exhaust particles.

Citation: Gauderman WJ, Vora H, McConnell R, Berhane K, Gilliland F, Thomas D, Lurmann F, Avol E, Kunzli N, Jerrett M, Peters J. Effect of exposure to traffic on lung development from 10 to 18 years of age: a cohort study. Lancet. 2007 Feb 17;369(9561):571-7.